This invention relates in general to land vehicles and more particularly, to personal mobility vehicles, such as wheelchairs, scooters, and the like. Most particularly, the invention relates to an assembly for mounting drive wheels to wheelchairs.
Wheelchairs are well known for increasing the mobility of the physically impaired. Typically, a wheelchair comprises a seat supported by a frame, which is carried by two drive wheels and two castors. In a manual wheelchair, the drive wheels are adapted for manual propulsion. Such drive wheels are typically provided with drive rims, which can be grasped by the occupant of the wheelchair to turn the wheels and thereby propel the wheelchair. There have been proposals for the provision of electric motors to drive such wheels. The motors can propel or assist in propulsion of a wheelchair and thereby, enable a manually propelled wheelchair to be converted into an electrically propelled or assisted wheelchair. Such a wheelchair is also then required to be equipped with one or more batteries and an appropriate control system.
Wheelchair frames for manual wheelchairs usually comprise left and right side frame parts, connected together by a cross-frame, which may include a folding mechanism. The side frames each comprises upper and lower frame members extending generally parallel to one another, forward and rearward of the wheelchair, and connected at or towards the front and rear of the wheelchair by upright or generally upright parts. Provision is made for the attachment of the drive wheels of the wheelchair and for the castors.
One important feature provided in some wheelchairs is its ability to be adjusted in various dimensional aspects to suit a particular or intended wheelchair occupant. One such adjustment is with respect of the height of the drive wheels relative to the wheelchair frame. Ideally, the drive wheels are also able to be adjusted forward and rearward of the wheelchair.